Field guide

A pocket-sized book intended to be taken into the field by the
birdwatcher to enable identification of birds to be made on the
spot. Field guides are well illustrated in colour with texts
virtually confined to identification points. The first example
was published in the
USA
in 1934, written and illustrated by Roger
Tory Peterson, but the first British field guide, by
R.
S.
R.
Fitter and
R.
A. Richardson, did not appear until 1952. There
are now three standard field guides covering the whole of Europe,
namely, those by Roger Peterson, Guy Mountfort and
P.
A.
D. Hollom
(first published 1954); by Bertel Bruun and Arthur Singer (first
published 1970); and by Herman Heinzel, Richard Fitter and John
Parslow (first published 1972), the latter's coverage extending
to North Africa and the Middle East.